


LduL2166

by glassywater



Category: Arthurian Mythology
Genre: Alternative Universe - Outer Space, Experimental Style, Gen, Monarchy, Regressive Politics, Trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-04
Updated: 2017-08-04
Packaged: 2018-12-11 02:57:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,342
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11705364
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/glassywater/pseuds/glassywater
Summary: Lancelot du Lac’s unspoken, unrecorded punishment after his stint in solitary incarceration on Exoplanet SD in the year 2166. Lancelot returns to humanity, and works at The Office. Memory is distant.





	LduL2166

The greater the institution, the more life is lost.

Look. At. traditional dogma approaches as the date comes and the gate OPENS a new dawn onto me bright and frugal squelch is the sound of guards (inhuman unspeaking don’t notice me standing on my head release me if my guilt is not obvious to you) stepping! i receive a hard slap on the head from the cold metal and may now be myself. unrelenting.

loss of mind loss of state

SHUT UP

the Eye slams shut 

-  
Slam shut and down the arbitrary holder of liquid containing caffeine as someone laughs behind me it is mechanical and screeching and distant, a recording of the yesteryear, a manufacture, a memory a erasure a reminder of WHAT? colder and colder it will get  
i look at the top of a clear screen. Two icons sway back and forth across a lathe frame of cosine and sine waves oscillating in tandem with the icons.  
cough cough  
as the Person walks past, the air shifts significantly and i wrap my head tighter and my skin shrivels more and the helmet is tighter.

that is not a BURNING (hot!) liquid of faith of destruction there is a flash (X) behind that sullen eye of mouth. Not a BE_ _AYER. not a nothing.  
I DON DO NOT DES DESERVE THis a new reality.  
.  
slap on the shoulder. linoleum in my mouth.

“self-abnegation required eldeeyuel.” the mechanism is blinking at me. the hum of The Office comes back roaring. it does not say this, it tells me by inserting its cold rod-disk into my temple.  
i sift through myself to find the PigLatin.exe file

“abnegation isn’t till 2317.7mm, mech - “  
“mech-Joly”  
“?”  
“Joly. your session has been changed to Tartus time.”  
“which is?”  
“791mm.”  
“and that’s now?”  
“yes. in Tartus time.”

the Person whirrs past my clear screen again. mech-Joly transports me through vacuum to the Tartus station. i try to finding Tartus time measurement. i feel tricked.

Tartus looks like a Beforemm period piece. there are mechs spitting in and out of time-space. it sounds like several contained explosions occurring simultaneously, squeezed into a shard. Distraught.  
mech-Joly transports me again to Abnegation Room 50.  
inside it, something churns. it’s not PigLatin.exe.

“what translator?” i can see mech-Joly at the corner of my eye about to vaporise.  
“2163… 2163update of TartLang. or NaturalHEBREW.exe.”  
“i don’t think i have that”  
“i checked. you do. NatHEB20000.”

there is a sharp POP (riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing) as mech-Joly exits. an entrance shiiifms open. the room is too warm too humid there is a Gnostic cross on the first white boundary in the room  
LOUD SCREAM!  
“Acknowledge thyself!” i start sweating. i can feel centrifugal force in the corner of the first half. there is a gravity centre of disproportionate size in the room. my nose is bleeding.

there goes the playing leviathan. i stumble to my knees and hold my head up there is the result and stinging of plastic tear ducts.  
“Reduce thyself! Thou restless cur! Heathen! God’s enemy!”  
My translator freezes LOUDER SCREAM!

“You are not yourself. Destroy what is your truth and accept that which is unreal. The identity you stand on is fallible and constructed by those who do not care for you. Destroy yourself. It is not a reality and it is not fantasy something has been broken here STAGE B CRISIS OVERHAUL ALL EVACUATION SET UP THE PLURAL BRIDGE IN THE MIND IN THE PEN OF THE ORPHAN NOT A REAL MAN BUT AN INSECT!”

ABNGROOM50systemfailur__ _ e

i shapeshift back to The Office. 

Tartus station recording is extracted by the Person. siphon siphon siphon it ALL from me  
24066mm chime chime  
i succumb to my medicational effects my beautiful red things spiral with the microbe mechs that swirl in and around. red lipped fog  
Gvre2124

STAGEBCRISISOVERHAULTHEDIPLOMATICWALKWAYFORTHEHERETICBORNFROMANOTHING WELL.

/  
orange pure light kisses on the godly cape (fluttering) of this fair lover. his sablebrush skin, carcinogen  
failure of the mind.  
there icansee the full length of youreyelashes he islookingmyway. not you (redacted) like a dolphin like a precise action, swift justice and the dart of love.  
if icherish you and your god in the night  
then do i accept the churlishness of velveteen skin and the teeth snapping at my neck  
THEN DO NOT LOOK AT IT YOU FOOL  
i gave it up for you shorn my hair by the sword like penitence because i want more than the simple, than what is available.  
desperate. patron saint of the desperate  
should have the propensity for lust and what is hidden in pride  
what is hidden in the wine in the water in the flash of the blade. mysword dulls on you.  
lay me under siege.

mech-Usser daringly activates FairEnglish.exe. i read the processes quick and base flash over his display interface. it does this in the presence of many Patrollers. he must be one of the rogues, still in service. i remember Modr1105

“there are reports that some mechs are acting against to the Crown”  
“expected.” (redacted) is standing on a Leviator in the artificially lit study of the Lowers. (redacted) is searching for a Beforemm map. topographical.  
i am also helping to locate this artefact.  
Modr1105 continued. “to some extent yes. nonetheless something is to be done”  
“and your suggestion?”  
“the QuarterFront Patrollers begin covert round-up, involving interviewing and possibly, disassembly. low-level, to reduce alarm in the plants”  
“unlikely” i am speaking. “very unlikely it is more prudent to go to the plants and contact the designers”  
“and the existing rogues?”  
“we will release a new circuit update and the rogues will be obsolete.”  
(redacted) finds the map.  
Gawn1105 grinds his teeth.  
(redacted) says “eldeeyuel, you and Gawn will work on this together. report back to me”

*  
NURSEANDQUEENTABITHA  
LUSTANDPURSUITOFPLEASUREDESTROYSALLMENRIDSTHEMOFALLHUMANITYRETURNSTHEMTOAREGRESSIVESTATE.  
CREATURESWITHOUTREASON.

mech-Usser is still using FairEnglish.exe. i turn off my translator. it has an accent, CentreRegion-like.  
“Ldul2166 you are required to report to your Confession”  
“yes. i know that, i received the notification. why are you here?”  
“to escort you”  
“yes, that is also clear. do you have details of this order? i have been unaccompanied to my Confessions for the past metric moon”  
“there has been some alteration in the orders concerning your post-incarceration sessions. i am not aware of the details however”  
“may i ask about your language file?”  
“this is FairEnglish.exe, a 2150 version, standard F with Crown approval”  
“yes, of course but why are you using it?”  
“it processes faster”  
i make the agreement sign.

Confession is held in the HolyFacility. i am to sit and consider and reflect and then spew gore from my mouth this is what i am wont to do and i revel in this punishment  
mech-Usser has decided not to transport me we are taking one of the Passages there. the spectral hum and bleeps of mech shwooooooping in and out and whirr of PersonalPassages are above and under. mech-Usser did not activate the Glare so i am exposed to the swift head turns as we ascend  
the small screen in the hall reads a list of open Confession booths. mech-Usser vaporises and i go to Confession booth A.

-  
G_re21… ASSYRIANDEVIL  
filigree on first glance, monstrous on another the riddle is set before them that ask what measure of discipline do you have dear knight of valour unsubscribe to the waylaid charms the waylaid road (redacted) (redacted) (redacted) (redacted)  
i pinch the skin inside my elbow  
(redacted)  
?  
(redacted)  
(redacted)  
Gvr_2_ _  
what is stopping you from receiving what is offered what rope what oath what geis traps you so completely i say loyalty doth not bring much more than noble sorrow and what doth nobility for the despaired man come towards the light there so that i may see you and kiss you  
dearest Lancelot 

lover most merciful knight most brave

(redacted)

or do you seek someone else  
yes  
who could it be that hath your heart between their teeth what feral waste could capture your freedom snared like prey in the jaws of the predator  
(redacted)

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by Ted Chiang’s ‘Story of Your Life’ (short story) and Actress’s ‘Ghettoville’ (album). I’m sticking to the popular canon for now but this is a fluid project and I can’t make any promises for later chapters.


End file.
